All Blog Posts (11,246)

Found this today in my news travels...http://theprovince.com/feature/immigrants-say-thank-you-to-canada
I so needed it, after all of the EXTREMELY depressing, distressing and disgusting U.S. news(which I should just stop reading, I suppose, even though on the flip side, I can't stand not being informed).
I feel so much pride in my country. I am so grateful for its inclusiveness, its kindness, its… Continue

It is often said that many are atheist because they read the Bible. This is my story. I did not know there were atheist books, activists or anything of the sort. I was a christian with my Bible. I could not discuss doubts with other believers I had to study the Bible that was my only choice.

This is one of my favorite passages that led to my disbelief. I did not know that Nazareth was not inhabited at all during Jesus's life time, that there was no census or that it couldn't have…

I felt almost scared clicking the checkbox that said I was a non-theist when I signed up for Atheist Nexus years ago, even though I knew it was true. And how my heart pounded when I saw that big glaring red "A" that was my default profile picture!

Talking with Atheist Nexus folks helped me adjust to a new identity, and transition to a new way of thinking about life. Too bad the community doesn't seem to be as active as back then. But it is good to check in anyway.

1. First, choose your parents. At least one of them should be religious. If you say it is impossible to choose parents, then wish for dame luck to favour you with religious parents.You should also love your parents and be obedient to them. It now becomes easy to believe in gods, because you love your parents and your parents told you that there are Gods.

2. Next, understand that believing in Gods in the absence of evidence is especially noble. What is…

Part 4 Booms and busts punctuate the history of capitalism; it is a systemic problem.

Remember General Motors, producer of automobiles? Over the last thirty years, General Motors created a subsidiary called GMAC, General Motors Acceptance Corporation. It is a bank. It lends money. It began by lending money to people to buy cars because their wages couldn’t pay for them. Then GMAC discovered they could make more money off the interest of the loan than they could make…

Part 3 We reached the limits of the kinds of capitalism this society can endure.

Turning, now, to the big business community, the last thirty years have been spectacular. Everything about the working class, with the introduction of computers, U.S. workers became more and more productive. We had a thirty-year period of rising labor productivity. Each year the worker produces more, and the wages stayed the same.

Part 2 How do people cope with so many changes taking place in such a short period?

First, wage-workers dealt with the end of rising wages by adding women and other family workers to the paid labor force, and they worked more hours per year. Between the 1970s and today, the average number of hours worked per year by a U.S. citizen rose by about 20 percent. We worked 20 percent more hours on the job than we did thirty years ago. By comparison, for example, if you…

There were a hundred and fifty years of rising standard of living for all people. Workers every decade enjoyed more because their wages rose, and they could buy more. They understood more and more work meant they could buy more stuff, i.e. homes, cars, education, health care, retirement, and recreation.

We are heading into the end of another calendar year. This is an interesting time for me each year. My birthday is in December, so I tend to do a personal inventory sometime in November or December. I find it usually depresses me, so I try not to stay on that for too long.

This year, from the physical standpoint, I have done well. I have continued with the walking and watching portions that I eat, and have managed to lose about 113 pounds since late January. Still a work in progress,…

Just now on CNN, Mr. Lanhee Chen, former public policy director for Mr. Romney, stated his old boss was a "Patriot". How the heck can he declare Romney a patriot when it was his turn to fight for his country, after being a hawk at BYU, encouraging fellow students to fight in Viet Nam and watching them die, choose to become a missionary to France. Just think, the people that gave the world Voltaire, Jean Jacques Rousseau and Jean Paul Satre converting to Mormonism! "Surreal" is…

Today marks the 2-year anniversary of the “official” publication of my book (review here), although the book had been available on Amazon prior to that date. I wrote the bulk of the content on Tending the Epicurean Garden during the year 2013, but in the years since I have not ceased to learn about…

Please don't take this literally, it is intended to be somewhat poetic. An illustration. I suspect many of you may think like this already, I hope you enjoy the thoughts, and understand the meaning inside.

Hello from Spain!After 54 years as an atheist/musician, I've just finished a song+video protesting against the destruction of Earth's nature/environment from human greed, global warming, overpopulation and religion.

Many people know about Deductive reasoning and Inductive reasoning, its weird however that they talk about these as if they are a choice, either you choose to apply deductive reasoning OR inductive reasoning. Not only is this not correct but there is also another form of reason, abductive reasoning.

Recently I have heard claims that deductive reasoning makes for bad science and inductive reasoning must be used (also claims that math isn't needed in science but I don't see the…

Some people think that evidence should count for less than "alternative" evidence, that you don't need math to understand the world. I used to think they were all called "Creationists" and then I find even in atheist communities the same types of people abound.

Conspiracy theories aren't being ignored because they are fact, they are ignored because they can be debunked. They are…

Tuesday morning I got up, actually happy that the day had finally come. I could cast my vote for Hillary and Ted Strickland and Marcia Fudge, and while I knew that Ted had no chance against Rob Portman, the other two would come through for me. My wife and I rode the short distance to the polling place on Columbus Road, showed our IDs and got our ballots, marked them and slipped them into the reader / scanner when we were done. We had well and faithfully done our bit for our country and its…

The DNC betrayed their people's interests, when they had a candidate that galvanized stadiums with his words and brought in independents, they silenced his words so they could have their piece of the establishment pie. When they were caught lying and doing bad things instead of taking responsibility they pointed fingers at Russia. 3rd party voters didn't split the vote, the Democrats split their own votes by putting up a second Republican. The Democrats just lost the house and are shrinking by… Continue